Venice - Grand Canal

The Grand Canal (Canal Grande: 3.8km/2.33mi long, with an average breadth of 70m/77yd and depth of 5m/16ft), Venice's principal traffic artery, starts from the station and traverses the city from north-west to south-east in a reversed S-curve; it gives an overwhelming impression of the wealth and splendor of Venice in its heyday with a continuous succession of great palaces of the princely Venetian merchants. Every style of architecture from the 12th to the early 18th century is represented along the Grand Canal. Particularly charming is the Venetian Gothic style with its fantastic arcades; and the Early Renaissance buildings are scarcely less splendid. The posts (pali) in front of the steps leading into the palaces, painted in their owner's heraldic colors, serve to protect the gondolas lying at their moorings.